The Death Penalty and the Eighth Amendment. Admin Opportunity to participate, be on the news! 2:00, Thursday, Room 117 Wooten – First 60 students – Line.

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Presentation on theme: "The Death Penalty and the Eighth Amendment. Admin Opportunity to participate, be on the news! 2:00, Thursday, Room 117 Wooten – First 60 students – Line."— Presentation transcript:

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Admin Opportunity to participate, be on the news! 2:00, Thursday, Room 117 Wooten – First 60 students – Line up at 1:50 Need a FERPA waiver – cross off “1050.001” and write in “1040.002”

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Admin Workbook 6-6, Question 14, Answer “A” has a typo (it should say “20%” instead of “10%”) 6-5 asks for information about women in particular jobs... If the information for a particular job is not available, don’t worry about it... Use the information on the website the best you can.

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Admin Exam Make-up If you want to retake (as opposed to make up) exam, you need to e-mail me (wwatson@unt.edu)wwatson@unt.edu Why you shouldn’t do it... – Retake score will be final, even if it is lower – Gap since you learned material – Format

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Eighth Amendment Prohibits cruel and unusual punishment “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society”

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Modern History of Death Penalty Furman v. Georgia (1972) Responses: – Death penalty for everyone! Rejected by Supreme Court in Woodson v. N.C. (1976)) – Aggravating and mitigating factors Accepted by the Supreme Court in Gregg v. Georgia (1976))

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Death Penalty Today 37 states, the federal government, and the U.S. military have capital statutes Number of inmates on death row = 3,350 – 393 death row inmates in Texas – 660 in California, but CA is slow to carry out sentences Lethal injection available everywhere except Nebraska (electrocution)

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8 th Amendment Is death penalty per se cruel and unusual? – Only Justices Marshall and Brennan have advocated this position Is death penalty as applied cruel and unusual? – Method of execution – Proportionality with crime (Coker v. Georgia (1977)) – Certain classes of defendants

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Close-up on Roper Simmons 17 at time of crime 1989, Supreme Court held that 16-18 year olds could be executed What changed?

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Justice Kennedy’s Opinion What evidence is there that standards of decency now prohibit execution of 16- and 17- year olds? – Steady (though slow) trend toward abolition – 5 states abolished juvenile dp after 1989 – Even in states that allow it, juvenile dp rare – U.S. only country that still had juvenile dp (not controlling, but telling)

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Justice Kennedy’s Opinion DP reserved for most serious crimes, most culpable defendants Why are juveniles less culpable than adults? – Less mature, more given to impulsive behavior – More susceptible to bad influences – Character of juveniles not yet fixed (hope for rehabilitation) Purpose of dp: retribution and deterrence